To think of the city in strategic and sustainable forms implies placing it within the wider territory and identifying the key functional aspects of its internal dynamics. Dealing with the challenges of sustainability requires a serene synthesis between urban culture and territorial culture. In this context, some questions are set out in relation to the outward diffusion of the city into the territory beyond, the crisis of certain central spaces, the difficulties of integrating new activities in the consolidated city and the fractures between urban planning and the functional realities. In the context of interdependence between urban dynamics and territorial processes in Spain, the paper deals with the relationships firstly between intra-urban and sustainable dynamics and secondly between territorial diffusion of the city and unsustainability. It is necessary to confront the renewal of urban thought starting out from a new culture of the city and of the territory, backing an adaptation of the compact European city to current needs.
With specific reference to historic city centres, connections between urban multi-functionality and recovery are established, backing strategies of integrated recovery which adjust the rhythms between economic, social and planning processes, overcoming merely architectural approaches and permitting the emerging tourism and cultural functions. The need to establish more reduced connections between policies of urban recovery and strategic planning are addressed, in order to find a new balance between physical economic, social and environmental realities.